The mirror didn't lie, Laurie was beautiful and she knew it. Who was her husband, soon to be ex-husband to treat her otherwise. He was a "conceded little terd" she lipped the words as she pressed the lipstick gloss against her upper lip lining the edge of the tube and the ridge curb of the cliff carefully. then she leaned back and pressed her lips together, kissing her reflection. Her blonde hair hung out shoulder length and her frame was slim but curvy, with a well bloomed 36c chest. Her nails were long and manicured and her eye lashes extended. The only thing that bothered her about what she saw in the mirror was who she was dressing up for.
The marriage hadn't always been sour- but in her mind she reasoned Tom loved golf more than her. In actuality she never loved him anyway- he was a means to an end and though she pretended during the courtship to be some sexual tiger- she was actually pretty frigid, not only with him, that was just her nature.
This was going to be the time she told him that she was leaving him, so she wanted to look her best to be sexy alluring and then deny him any of it, cutting him off completely- she wanted to hurt him the most that she could.
She walked by a romance picture of them in a whine glass that hung on the wall. It was when they were first together, but she passed by without a glance. "Poor Tom." she said aloud as she flicked her long tongue across her teeth with a snake's grin- your 're not going to see this coming. She picked the best of her jewelry that he had bought for her and dressed up her wrists, neck and ears accordingly. then waited for him where the kitchen and the living room met.
and waited.
and waited, clicking her nails on the counter as the moments passed. She began to consider what things she would fight for in the divorce, then win and pitch in the trash.
She heard his car pull up and run from the car up the stairs to the door, it opened and he smiled at her, "Wow babe- you look great!" there was nothing wrong with the man, he was handsome and successful, he cared for and doted over her but she didn't care enough for him to even wonder why she didn't like him.
"I've been ready." she smiled and plucked her purse from the counter.
What Tom wanted to say was: "You've been ready all day because you don't work- where I have to close deals and then rush home because you want to go out and eat at a certain restaurant at a certain time and already have the reservations with the credit card that I got for you... because I am out closing deals!" but what he did was smile and shrug his shoulders, assuming she knew the rest.
"Uh-ha." she walked by him, the fragrance of her opiate perfume following. It, like many of the things he had gotten for her was "double e" expensive & extremely-expensive.
The ride to the restaurant was long and the conversation minimal. Tom would have liked to talk about work but she told him that bored her, he gave up trying to get her excited about his friends as she referred to them as lame dolts. The restaurant was crowded but their table was ready and he took the chair for her. She handed her purse to the waiter and asked for a scotch.
"I'll have the same... make it a double."
She crossed her fingers and smiled at him from across the table.
He smiled back, "How was your day dear?"
She clicked her nails at the table. "I spoke to a friend of yours, Howard?"
Tom's mind raced to remember the name. "Howard?"
She shrugged, "He said he knew you, from golf?"
Tom still drew a blank.
"He's a lawyer... a divorce lawyer."
The drinks came. "Just in time." Tom scooped his out of the servers hand and downed it- "Send another." His heart began to sink and his stomach churned, he thought he might know where this was going.
She took a long shallow sip of her drink, leaving a perfect red lip on the glass, "He said you have a lot of assets- I told him I wouldn't know about it as you never tell me anything."
They weren't always like that though- there was a time they got along. During the courtship she had seemed so wild so free- then once they were married she'd become such a prune. He had asked her once to indulge in a fantasy of his and she freaked on him- he was sure that is what started this animosity between them, after all he indulged her fantasy of being rich, why should she indulge his?
He assumed that she wasn't going to order but she did, she ordered the lobster and steak. "Bitch!" he thought.
"And for you sir?"
"More of these." he pointed to his second empty glass.
"We have a bar sir." the waiter suggested with his eyes that perhaps Tom needed to go there.
"Are you destitute for more seats out here? Get me the drink."
"No reason to make a scene dear." she smiled lightly.
"Please, if you didn't want a scene why'd you drag me half way across the state?" he loosened his collar, "What are you worried you won't be able to come here with your new sap?"
Her meal arrived and when his next drink was slow in coming he grabbed hers.
"So." she cut the steak up deliberately before she ate it, "He has drawn up some papers that you should read and sign and then we can move on."
Tom saw red.
He had, had enough. Sitting there watching her eat the expensive meal, with her hair, the dress, the perfume the make up all manicured... he saw the money he had poured into her and knew that more would be going soon... yet he had no return... if it was a business venture the stock owners would have fired him... "We'll have to get some profit." he told himself, "Got to get into the black again... into the black?" he considered his words.
Tom calmed down, he stopped sweating and when the waiter came, he asked him for water.
"You're taking this well Tom." she said as she put the plate to the side. She had eaten four bites of the steak and hadn't touched the lobster- she never did. It wasn't odd for her not to eat much, she just liked him to spend the money on it.
When Tom ordered coffee, she got a little nervous.
"Are the papers at home- or will I be served at work so my friends will see?"
"I am not sure."
Her reply told him that she'd planned to serve him at work for exactly that reason but now that he was on to her he wouldn't be surprised if she would excuse herself shortly to call the lawyer and change it.